1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an access system which utilizes biometrics technology, to allow access to persons, equipment or facilities, and in particular, which uses biometrics in medical applications to prevent patient medical procedure errors, and to prevent fraud.
2. Description of the Related Art
The high frequency of medical errors and the adverse effect these errors have on clinical outcomes, has been of increasing concern. With new HIPAA and JCHAO regulations, healthcare institutions and practitioners are tasked with prioritizing patient safety, security, confidentiality, and reliability of data. In spite of these continuing efforts, patient identification errors remain an ongoing problem throughout the healthcare enterprise, including the medical imaging department.
Present patient identification systems utilize sub-optimal low technology patient identification methods such as wrist bands and verbal confirmation. These identification methods are prone to human error and may result in the performance of inappropriate tests and procedures, which can cause unnecessary morbidity, expense, radiation exposure, and even death.
Further, identity theft—including medical identity theft—has nearly tripled in the last four years, to more than 250,000 in 2005. Still further, misappropriation of medical records is on the rise—where erroneous entries could cause fatal consequences.
New biometrics technologies are currently available that obviate the potential for human error in misidentification by utilizing an anatomic feature unique to each patient. These include a number of different biometrics technologies such as facial recognition, fingerprint analysis, and retinal scanning, etc. Additionally, radiofrequency identification (RFID) technology exists, which allows for the tracking and auditing of an individual person or object as they matriculate throughout the enterprise. These technologies, in isolation or combination, provide the ability for authentication, identification, and surveillance of healthcare consumers (i.e., patients), as well as the healthcare providers (e.g., technologists, physicians, etc.).
However, none of these technologies has been integrated with medical applications to allow access to medical personnel, equipment and records, particularly over a variety of databases, whether local, regional, or national. Accordingly, the use of better patient identification technologies, such as biometrics, in medical applications, with access to patient records whether locally, regionally, and nationally, would be highly desirable.